Greg Goldberg on His Sky Lobby Paintings at One World Trade Center

Installation view of paintings by Greg Goldberg at One World Trade Center.

JEFF GOLDBERG

In January, One World Trade Center debuted seven paintings by Greg Goldberg on its 64th-floor sky lobby, a reception and events area in the building that, as we spoke about them last week, was being filled with chairs for some kind of press conference by the BBC.

“Popular floor,” Goldberg said, smiling.

The seven works in his World Trade Center series are oil on linen, each five and a half feet by six feet, with wavy abstract color samplings that Goldberg describes as having been “woven” together over 16 to 18 layers in each work. Like the sky lounge, Goldberg’s studio in Connecticut, where he worked on the paintings in pairs, faces north, and the light on the 64th floor feels a part of the composition.

The suite, which was made for the space, is installed in a long row, with one on each end of the room and then a cluster of two and a cluster of three along a wall between them. The latter two groups might be considered diptychs or triptychs, though all seven works could be said to work together. “This is the first time I’ve had to think about them as a totality,” Goldberg said. Normally he works on them individually.

Edelman Arts curated the sky lobby, and Goldberg’s proposal for the commission was apparently pretty vague, by necessity. “The colors are determined by the prior colors,” he said. He goes with the flow of the paintings as they develop. So he was happy to have the leniency.

The next time you’re at One World Trade, you should swing by! In the meantime, check out this slide show of the paintings.